Riding the Raisina Tiger

Riding the Raisina Tiger - a Politico-military thriller about an Army Chief who decided to take things into his own hands. AVAILABLE FOR FREE DOWNLOAD ON 26 JAN ON OCCASION OF REPUBLIC DAY FROM https://www.amazon.com/Riding-Raisina-Tiger-Story-military-ebook/dp/B01ALCCNSS

Blogitorial

Click to read the article on Swordarm

Custom Search Engine - Scans Selected News Sites

Loading

Friday, 26 February 2016

The haste with which
the Army was deployed in Haryana by airlifting troops to Rohtak is a serious
matter. The Army is the last resort for quelling civilian riots, not the first
one. What Haryana did is akin to using a sledgehammer to kill a fly.

In the midst of
military operation to quell the Jat protest in Haryana there was an innocuous
media report suggesting that Army personnel had been put under the command of
BS Sandhu, Additional DGP (Law and Order). The report also said that the state
government has asked the Army to be called in eight districts. In this matter
the "Chief Secretary had spoken to the Army Chief and the Chief Minister
to the Defence Minister". The effort was to deploy the Army as soon as
possible to control the situation.

This report went
viral on the veteran's email circuit with some senior officers, including
former Generals, venting their spleen at the humiliation meted out to the Army
by placing its men under the command of the police. Lt Gen (retd) SK Bahri shot
off an angry letter to the Union Home Minister.
Lt Gen Shokin Chauhan, GOC, 1 Corps quickly intervened and clarified the
position in an email: “The troops in Haryana are from 1 Corps, which I command
and there is no question about they being under anyone's command other than
mine… I visited them yesterday and today the Army Commander was with them. We
have a commander in each district commanding his troops. The police assist us
in identifying local people, tracks and disturbed areas.” This assuaged the
veterans and the anger faded away. But the bitter fact is that there is a huge
trust deficit between the government and the veterans, which is also has a
ripple effect on serving soldiers. This is not in national interest.

The Haryana
government seems to have goofed up the entire handling of the situation. The
provision of the Army in aid of civil authority is governed by Section 130 of
the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC). This legal clause states that decision to
requisition "armed forces" to
disperse "violent assembly of people," which cannot otherwise be
dispersed by the police or other forces available, should be taken by the
“Executive Magistrate of the highest rank,” which is the District Magistrate,
called the Deputy Commissioner in Haryana. Such Magistrate “may require any
officer in command of any group of persons belonging to the armed forces to
disperse the assembly with the help of the armed forces under his command, and
to arrest and confine such persons forming part of it as the Magistrate may
direct, or as it may be necessary to arrest and confine in order to disperse
the assembly or to have them punished according to law." Law also says
that “every such officer of the armed forces shall obey such requisition in
such manner as he thinks fit, but in so doing he shall use as little force and
do as little injury to person and property, as may be consistent with
dispersing the assembly and arresting and detaining such persons.” Law and the
standard operating procedure are clear. District Magistrates are the competent
authority to requisition the Army as the local situation demands. After
requisition, when the situation is handed over to the Army by a written order
from the Magistrate, the Army is entirely in control with the
officer-in-command in charge. Only that the Army is expected to bring the
situation under control quickly and hand it back to the civil authorities and
exit the scene. The Army presence, at
best, should be just about for a week.

Under no
circumstance can the Army be placed under the command of the police. This is an
essential part of fair civil administration because the Army is expected to be
totally impartial and unprejudiced while dealing with an explosive law and
order situation, which might have arisen because of excess committed by the
police resulting in a head-on confrontation with the rioting public. Neither is
there any provision for “bulk requisitioning” of the Army by the Chief
Secretary or the Chief Minister directly dealing with the Army Chief or the
Defence Minister.

These are serious
distortions that have crept into basic governance over a period of time due to
civil servants pandering to the whims of politicians. The haste with which Army was deployed in
Haryana by airlifting troops to Rohtak is another serious matter. Army is the
last resort for quelling civilian riots, not the first one. What Haryana did is
akin to using a sledgehammer to kill a fly. What is strange is that Army Chief,
General Dalbir Singh Suhag, who belongs to Haryana, appears to have taken
personal interest in this “show of extreme force.” As the Eastern Army
Commander, he had taken more than four days to move the Army when Kokrajhar and
a few other districts of Assam were burning from communal violence and the
death toll had crossed 100. District Magistrates there had requisitioned the
force directly and the Army was already in deployment near district towns. Yet
Suhag had cited procedures for the delay, which is contrary to the mandate of
Section 130 CrPC. There is a lurking suspicion that he may have become an
unwitting accomplice to a well-manipulated plan to silence democratic dissent
sweeping all over the country.

This has happened
despite the presence of nearly 50 companies, or around 5,000 Central Reserve
Police Force (CRPF) personnel in the state, in addition to over 60,000 Haryana
policemen, including Special Armed Police based in Madhuban near Karnal. In
addition, there are several other paramilitary forces with huge strength whose
services could have been requisitioned.

The Army
Doctrine-2004 clearly defines its role in national security and maintenance of
law and order. The primary role is to preserve national interests and safeguard
sovereignty, territorial integrity and the unity of India against any external
threats by deterrence or by waging war. The secondary role is to assist
Government agencies to cope with "proxy war" and other internal
threats and provide aid to civil authority when requisitioned for the purpose.
Relegating the Army to its secondary role by constant troop deployment on
internal security duties, dilutes the Army's authority, corrupts ranks and
compromises efficiency through lack of training. Besides, over time soldiers of
the Army are looked upon merely as riot controllers in olive green, losing the
respect and mystique they traditionally enjoyed. This also lulls the bloated
civil police and paramilitary forces that continue to grow, but remain incapable
of maintaining law and order. Haryana's proud Jat community reducing themselves
to seek charity from the government in the form of quota is bad enough. But
resorting to such violence and rioting is a permanent blur on this martial
community. There must very strong socio-economic compulsions for Jats to take
to this inglorious path. Powers that be in Haryana must learn one lesson from
this royal goof-up. That is, to properly diagnose the causes for this flare-up
and take remedial steps before it is too late. Letting loose the Army's might
is certainly not the answer.

A Jaish-e-Mohammad
militant from Pakistan has been arrested from north Kashmir’s Baramulla
district.

He was a member of
the group that had carried out an attack on an Army installation at Tangdhar in
Kupwara in November last year.

The militant is part
of the Afzal Guru squad, named after hanged Parliament attack convict Afzal
Guru.

Mohammad Sidiq,
alias Shahid, a resident of Sialkot, was arrested on the outskirts of Baramulla
during a joint operation by security forces.

The police said the
18-year-old militant seemed to have been inducted by Jaish founder Masood
Azhar. The militant had entered Baramulla almost 15 days back and was planning
to carry out an attack.

“Based on specific information,
multiple operations were launched in and around Baramulla. After sustained
operations, one terrorist, Mohammad Sidiq, was overpowered and apprehended near
Kansipora in Baramulla,” said Gareeb Das, Deputy Inspector General of Police,
north Kashmir.

During questioning, the militant
admitted that he was a part of a squad that carried out the attack on an Army
base at Tangdhar in Kupwara in November last year. On November 25 last year,
the Army foiled a suicide attack and killed three Jaish militants who tried to
storm an Army base in Tangdhar.

The arrested militant told
interrogators that the four-member group had been launched from Athmuqam in
Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

He said they crossed the LoC
late on November 24 and walked to the Army base. “He set afire the oil depot
inside the Army camp at Tangdhar,” Das said.

The police said he fled through
the forest area and shifted to Kupwara. He was in touch with handlers, who
advised him to contact an overground worker in Kupwara. The militant reached
Kupwara along with a rifle.

“We had a tip-off that four
militants were involved in the November 25 attack in Tangdhar. Earlier this
month, we busted a Jaish module in Handwara. From there, we came to know that
the militant had shifted to Baramulla. After working on various leads, we
busted the five-member network in Baramulla,” Das said.

During the
48-hour-long gunfight between three militants and government forces in Pampore
which ended on Monday, security forces had evacuated the youngest son of Hizbul
Mujahideen chief Syed Salahuddin.

Syed Mueed Yousuf
(29) was trapped along with over 100 civilians, including employees of the
Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI), inside the
building.

He is a manager,
information technology, at the JKEDI. He was evacuated by security forces from
the hostel building, adjacent to the main JKEDI building where the gunfight
took place.

On Monday, when the
gunfight ended, the United Jihad Council (UJC), headed by Salahuddin, hailed
the attackers. The UJC said the attackers would be rewarded and threatened more
attacks targeting government installations.

“Mueed was on the third floor of
the JKEDI building along with other employees. They were first taken to the
hostel building and later rescued. Mueed and other rescued civilians were taken
away in a bullet-proof vehicle,” said a police officer.

Asked if security forces were
aware of his presence in the JKEDI, the officer said, “Had he been harmed,
security forces would have faced a lot of accusations.”

Salahuddin (70) has two other
sons. Unlike their father, who had crossed the LoC soon after unsuccessfully
contesting the 1987 Assembly elections, they had chosen a different path.

Mueed did a BTech course and got
employed as manager, information technology. Salahuddin’s eldest son is a
doctor and another is a medical assistant.

Mueed’s colleague, who was
trapped inside the hostel building before they being evacuated, said, “He was
afraid like everyone else and broke his hand while frantically running for
cover as bullets flew from both sides.” He added that the attackers did not
intend to take hostages.

It was during the evacuation
that a JKEDI employee, gardener from a Pulwama village in south Kashmir, was killed
after a bullet hit him in the abdomen.

Mueed could not be contacted as
he had lost his mobile phone at the JKEDI, said sources. Many witnesses said
the militants, while asking civilians to leave the JKEDI complex soon after
attacking the CRPF convoy, had told them to leave behind their belongings,
particularly mobile phones.

Kashmir’s top separatist leaders
had been facing criticism that none of their immediate relatives had joined
militancy while they “exhorted others” to join “armed struggle”.

Former RAW chief AS Dulat, in
his recently released book “Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years”, had claimed that
Salauddin intelligence bureau in Srinagar had received a call from Salahuddin,
requesting help in getting one of his sons enrolled in a medical college. This
accusation was later “strongly refuted” by Salahuddin.

According to varsity
officials, a group of ex-servicemen had visited the campus and suggested this
idea. The development assumes great significance in wake of the ongoing debate
over alleged antinational activities in JNU. Recently, the government has also
directed all central universities to fly the National Tricolor as a symbol of
nationalism.

“They gave us the idea of a wall
of fame for army soldiers who died on battlefield. We liked the suggestion and
might consider the idea of having it on campus. Not only a memorial for
soldiers but also military symbols,” said Prof Bupinder Zutshi, registrar of
the university.

Ex-servicemen have been vocal
about the ‘anti-national’ tag on the university and some of them have even
threatened to return their JNU degrees.

A letter was sent to the
vice-chancellor of the university by defence veterans. The ex-servicemen of the
54th NDA course had written to the V-C, saying they “find it difficult” to be
associated with an institution that has become a "hub of anti-national
activities".

They had also organised a rally
on Sunday, attended by students, teachers, professors and residents of Delhi,
from Raj Ghat to Jantar Mantar. It saw marchers fervently waving the tricolour
and raising slogans like 'Vande Mataram' and 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' while some of
them said nothing is above ‘nationalism’.

Major General (retd.) Dhruv C
Katoch had on Saturday said the rally was organised by an apolitical group
'People for Nation'. More than 10,000 people participated in it.

In another development, the JNU
administration has incorporated two more members from the teaching faculty to
the enquiry committee on the sedition case.

“We wanted it to be broad-based
as there were allegations that only science professors were in the committee.
We are sending all the information to the ministry also,” Prof Zutshi added.

From Wednesday, the
Indian Army has begun a week-long training of military trainers from ASEAN Plus
countries in Humanitarian Mine Action (HMA) and Peacekeeping Operations (PKO)
in the backdrop of the upcoming multinational Field Training Exercise (FTX) to
be held from March 2.

Exercise FORCE 18,
the largest multinational FTX, is being conducted by the Indian Army from March
2-8 in Pune. With focus on HMA and PKO, this will be the maiden multinational
exercise ever conducted by ground forces on Indian soil and will see the
participation of 18

“The essence of the exercise
would be to learn and share the best practices with other armies of the world
and display India’s commitment towards peace and stability in the region,” a
press release by the Defence PRO said. Officials said that the training would
be conducted at Aundh Military Station and College of Military Engineering.

Over 25 trainers from these
countries, who arrived in Pune on Tuesday, would be trained by experts trainers
in the Indian Army. The release further said, “The conversion of training material
into native languages would be done. The trainers would thus form a dynamic
role to cater to challenges of language barriers and formulate common operating
procedures.”